Fuji Heavy Industries. today announced the change of its company name to Subaru Corporation with tentative effect from April 1, 2017.
The origins of FHI date back to the foundation of the Aircraft Research Laboratory (later to become Nakajima Aircraft Co., Ltd.) in 1917. After going through a number of reorganizations, FHI was established under its current name in 1953. Since then, the company has expanded its businesses ranging from aerospace and industrial products segments to its primary business of Subaru automobiles which began with the introduction of the Subaru 360 minicar in 1958.
Today, the Subaru automotive business operates in more than 90 countries worldwide and continues to achieve strong growth thanks to the support of its customers around the globe. For the fiscal year ending March 2017, Subaru projects its global vehicle sales to exceed one million units (1,050,000 units on a consolidated basis) for the first time in its history.
In its mid-term management vision “Prominence 2020” announced in May 2014, FHI set a corporate vision for 2020 of being “a high-quality company that is not big in size but has distinctive strength”. To this end, the company is focusing on two initiatives: enhancing the Subaru brand and building a strong business structure.
FHI is taking the opportunity of the 100th anniversary of the 1917 founding of Nakajima Aircraft to change its company name and unify it with its brand name. The purpose of this shift is to further accelerate their efforts to enhance the Subaru brand and achieve even greater growth for Subaru as a distinctive global brand in the automotive and aerospace industries.
Subaru is a Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster. Subaru was the first brand to use a Japanese name for its vehicles. The name symbolizes the unity of the six companies related to Nakajima Aircraft that merged to form Fuji Heavy Industries.
